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In case you were too busy running your business last
night to tune into the first presidential debate in Denver,
here’s a recap: Both candidates talked about their support for
cutting taxes for small businesses in some way, but they sparred
over what is actually considered a small business.

Overwhelmingly -- from polls to political pundits to the
Twitterati -- former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was
considered the winner of the debate. In the first few minutes,
Romney recounted a five-step plan he has for creating jobs that
he previously
outlined at the Republican National Convention. One of
the five key components to his plan is to "champion small
business."

"It's
small business that creates the jobs in America. And over the
last four years small-business people have decided that America
may not be the place to open a new business, because new business
startups are down to a 30-year low," Romney said. "I know what it
takes to get small business growing again, to hire people."

President Barack Obama acknowledged that he and Romney "do share
a deep interest in encouraging small-business growth" and he
touted that he has cut taxes for small businesses 18 times
throughout his four years as president. He pledged to continue
cutting tax rates for small businesses, and families.

Romney said one critical way to lower taxes for small businesses
is by lowering the individual tax rates. He wants to extend the
Bush-era tax
cuts for everyone, which he says will also help
small-business owners. "Fifty-four percent of America's workers
work in businesses that are taxed not at the corporate tax rate
but at the individual tax rate. And if we lower that rate, they
will be able to hire more people," Romney said. "For me, this is
about jobs."

Obama countered that under his plan to eliminate the Bush-era tax
cuts for anyone who makes more than $250,000, 97 percent of
small-business owners would not see their income taxes go up.
"Under Governor Romney's definition, there are a whole bunch of
millionaires and billionaires who are small businesses. Donald
Trump is a small business," Obama said.

Romney argued that business owners in the top 3 percent do the
lion's share of the hiring and growing. He cited an electrician
he talked to in St. Louis who has four employees. "He said he and
his son calculated how much they pay in taxes. Federal income
tax, federal payroll tax, state income tax, state sales tax,
state property tax, gasoline tax — it added up to well over 50
percent of what they earned," Romney said.

Meanwhile, Romney cited a
report from the National Federation of Independent Business
that says raising individual taxes on that portion of business
owners could cost approximately 700,000 jobs. Recently, the NFIB
has come under
fire for allegedly supporting big business and right-leaning
causes.

The candidates also wrangled over health care. Romney said
"Obamacare" makes businesses less likely to hire people, while
Obama noted that the model has worked in Massachusetts, where
Romney created it as governor, and it hasn't hurt jobs.

Throughout the debate, Obama and Romney sprinkled their
commentary chock full of numbers and statistics, all of which the
policy-hungry media ate up, but which may have largely left the
American view public glassy-eyed. As a result, the one-off
comments that the candidates made -- "zingers" as the Twitterati
called them -- were the most popular part of the debate for many.

One highlight came when Romney told the moderator, Jim Lehrer,
the executive editor of the NewsHour on PBS, that he would
consider chopping federal funding for PBS in his efforts to
tackle the federal deficit. "I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I
actually like you too. But I'm not going to -- I'm not going to
keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to
pay for it," Romney said.

By the end of the debate, there was already a twitter handle
" @BigBirdRomney "
with more than 7,000 followers that proclaimed "I just got fired
by Romney."

The next debate of the campaign is scheduled for Oct. 11, on
foreign and domestic policy between the vice-presidential
candidates of the two parties, Vice President Joseph Biden and
Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.).

Did the first presidential debate change your mind
about which candidate will be the best for
entrepreneurship? Leave a comment below and let us
know.